Climate change has seriously affected agriculture and many aspects of the life of local people in the Vietnam Mekong Delta (VMD). Learning to shift towards sustainable development to successfully adapt to climate change is essential. The VACB (V—garden/orchard; A—fishing farm; C—livestock farm; B—biogas) model is considered one of the best approaches and methods to adapt to climate change in the VMD. This paper aims to explore the transformative social learning and sustainable development associated with this model in terms of agricultural transformation for sustainability to climate change adaptation in the VMD. The mixed methods approach that guided the data collection included focus group discussions, in-depth interviews with key informants and household surveys. Our findings show that there are three learning processes associated with transformative social learning linked to the VACB model: instrumental, communicative and emancipatory learning. Farmers reported increased knowledge and improved relationships and efficiency when applying the VACB model using several learning channels, both formal and informal. Farmers highlighted six factors that influenced transformative social learning during the adoption and development of the VACB model and several barriers to implementing adaptation strategies to climate change in an attempt to upscale the VACB model.

As the Vietnamese government continues to seek appropriate actions to move the national action on climate change forward, the emergence of grassroots sustainability initiatives has the potential to promote sustainability from the ground up. This paper reviews the current concepts of transformative learning (T-learning) and its importance through which some substantial linkages between T-learning and sustainability can be identified. It outlines the environmental changes in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, which appear to serve as "disorienting dilemmas" that force the local people to learn and gradually transform their behaviors and lifestyle choices to align with a lowcarbon and sustainable development. In an ideal T-learning approach, the major beneficiaries are the small-scale farmers, women, and ethnic groups (learners). They learn by doing under the supervision of educators (experts) in field-based schools that offer real-life experience and encourage learners to shift from traditional farming practices to modern, eco-friendly agricultural models that promote local economic self-reliance and biodiversity conservation. The paper sheds new light on how a critical approach to education for sustainable development through T-learning is an appropriate form and why T-learning should be acknowledged as an important part of the broader approach to self-help, climate resilient development in vulnerable communities.

No abstract